


A Couple of Master Assassins

by f_romanoff_13



Series: Family [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Arguments, Avengers - Freeform, Developing Relationship, Disagreements, F/M, Feelings, Feels, Missions, Past, Protective Clint, relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-18
Updated: 2013-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-02 00:11:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/f_romanoff_13/pseuds/f_romanoff_13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the story of how Clint and Natasha got together, broke up, and got back together again (with a little interference from Pepper and Tony)</p><p>-> This is an introduction to my <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/series/59200"><strong>Family</strong></a>  series, but can be read as a one shot</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> I have no beta, all mistakes are my own - apologies!  
> All Characters unfortunately do not belong to me, they belong to Marvel

Following the battle of New York and the defeat of Loki, Tony rebuilt his tower and gathered the team under one roof. A series of floors were added in order to accommodate the new residents, and eventually, they all moved into the tower.  
Everyone had assumed Clint and Natasha were a couple, but in actual fact; they _used_ to be...

When Natasha had first defected and agreed to work for Shield, she’d been made to partner Clint. Fury had warned him it was his responsibility to keep an eye on her, and the pair were under close scrutiny. However they proved everyone wrong, fast becoming Shield's most successful team. 

They became a couple a little over a year after their first mission as partners. It was slow and delicate, neither knowing where they were heading, but it soon evolved into a full blown relationship and it scared them both to admit how much they needed the other.

Then all of a sudden, it went downhill... 

A mission in Marrakesh had gone drastically wrong. Clint had overstepped his mission parameters in order to protect Natasha; he took a bullet for her and was knocked unconscious. Enemy agents were alerted to their presence when the alarms sounded; the building was set alight, explosions rocked the foundations and Natasha’s instructions came through to leave all casualties behind and get out with the data drive she’d stolen, at whatever cost.

Natasha ripped the com unit from her ear and shoved it in her pocket; there was no way she was leaving Clint. She managed to get him down three flights of stairs and take out seven guards before the roof came down on top of them both. 

They were trapped, the coms had lost their signal, and as far as she was aware no one was coming for them. Clint had woken, but he was still losing a lot of blood from the bullet wound in his shoulder. They'd been trapped for well over 10 hours when he leaned over and grasped Natasha’s hand, he was worried to find it cold; she was freezing, her leg was trapped beneath debris and she had a nasty head wound. She turned slowly to face him, forcing a sad smile to her face

“You should have left me, Nat”

“Couldn’t do that” she said, coughing as she inhaled, the movements caused a shooting pain up her side and she winced

“Couldn’t have left you either” he smiled at her, squeezing her hand gently

“You shouldn’t have got in the way”

“He would have killed you, Nat”

“Would have been better than us both dying” she said sadly, referring to the unfortunate predicament they were now in

“No. It wouldn’t” Clint replied softly, squeezing Natasha’s frozen hand gently in his “I love you, Natasha”

“I love you too, Clint” she whispered, before slipping into unconsciousness

“Tasha?.. Natasha!” Clint tried desperately to wake her, but nothing worked. Tears slid down his face and eventually, he too slipped from consciousness.


	2. II

Five days later, Clint woke in the Shield infirmary. Finding Fury stood by the door to his room, glaring at him. 

“Conference room, 5 minutes” was all the director said before disappearing down the hall.

With a bit of unwanted help, Clint managed to make it to the conference room before sitting ungracefully in one of the uncomfortable chairs. Hill and Coulson were there, and other than Fury, the room was empty.

“Where’s Tasha?”

“Agent Barton-“

“I don’t care what you’re going to say Fury. Where is Natasha?”

Fury scowled at him, but answered his question anyway; “Agent Romanoff is still in the infirmary”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“It’ll take a while, but she should be”

Clint breathed a sigh of relief; he’d half been expecting Fury to tell him that she'd died.

“You won’t be working with Agent Romanoff any more, Barton” Fury informed him sternly.

“What?! Why?” he asked angrily

“The information disc from Marrakesh was damaged when the building collapsed; the whole thing was for nothing because you both disobeyed orders. Agent Romanoff will be reprimanded and the two of you will cease to be partners”

 

That was the last mission Strike Team Delta worked together. Clint was sent instantly on another mission while Natasha recovered from her injuries, by the time he returned, she was gone. They were posted at opposite sides of the globe and never had overlapping stays in towns or cities. They tried to keep in contact, keep tabs on one another, but Shield made it almost impossible.

Time passed and eventually they both moved on. 

 

Then, in the middle of a mission, Natasha received a phone call from Coulson informing her that Barton had been compromised. All the feeling she’d tried to ignore, buried deep within her, came flooding painfully back to the surface.


	3. III

Following the battle of New York, as part of the Avengers, the pair of assassins were forced to work together once again.  
It was awkward for both of them; Marrakesh was almost four years ago, but they moved into the tower and agreed to move past it; they became friends and nothing more. They fell into a routine. Friends. They trusted each other, had history. They worked well together and the rest of the team noticed...

 

Then another mission got in the way. 

They needed information from Stephen Griffin, well known in the drug world but more recently had decided to try his luck dealing in human trafficking.  
He was almost impossible to get close to, so an undercover mission was assigned to the Avengers. 

Steve was to go in posing as a well off business man, bully and all-round nasty guy; someone Griffin would like, however hard for Steve that was to portray. He was to show an interest in ‘trading’ his wife (Natasha). Clint would be posted across the street as surveillance and the others were stationed a block away as back up. The idea was for Steve and Natasha to get close enough to bring him in without a need for anyone else. And as far as everyone other then Clint was concerned, it was working.

Steve had had to do a lot of work to get into his role and he was playing it well. He shoved Natasha through Griffin’s office door and left her weeping on the floor while he spoke business with Griffin. He was a tall and imposing man, one of the reasons Steve was chosen rather for the role over his team mates. Griffin sent away his men and turned his attention to Natasha, he dragged her from the floor and examined her like a piece of meat, a commodity to be bought and sold. Clint was already aiming his weapon at him; he’d like nothing more than to wipe that arrogant look off his face. Griffin made a few comments like ‘too skinny’ and ‘red hair, we don’t get many of those’; overall he looked impressed. He made Steve an offer which he accepted and shook his hand. 

The next thing that happened took Steve by surprise, it made Clint’s blood boil, however it had been exactly what Natasha had been expecting.  
Griffin grabbed her throat and threw her to the floor, he followed; straddling her hips and pinning her to the ground, he used one hand to pin her hands above her head and the other to rip open her top, he stared approvingly at what he saw.  
Natasha was just getting ready to take him down; flip the position over, knee him between the legs and handcuff him so Steve could drag him into custody, but before she could move an arrow flew through the open window and embedded itself in his eye socket.  
She scrambled out from beneath the dead body and glared at Clint across the street. Now they’d get nothing useful from Griffin and Fury would be livid.

 

Sure enough, he was furious. Both Clint and Natasha were reprimanded and as way of punishment, were forced to complete all the Avengers overdue paperwork.


	4. IV

Following that, Natasha refused to speak to Clint unless it was absolutely required. Clint was equally pissed at Natasha for taking unnecessary risks in the field; he was forever getting in trouble for having her back. 

The awkward silences were torture for the rest of the team. Natasha ate alone everyday while the rest of the team had their meals together and Clint had had to find a new sparring partner when Natasha started training with Steve. 

This went on for three weeks before Tony decided it had been long enough. He tried talking to Clint about it, but he was more stubborn than Tony had initially given him credit for. He then tried broaching the subject with Natasha who threatened to break his jaw if he continued. 

He was forced to call in reinforcements. 

They made sure the rest of the team was out. Tony dosed Clint’s coffee with a mild sedative and dragged him to a closet while Pepper asked Natasha for help carrying something upstairs before locking her in too. The two assassins were trapped together, Tony made sure JARVIS wouldn’t let them out before him and Pepper left on a date.

 

Natasha sulked by the door; she was furious and annoyed. She had picked the lock but JARVIS was keeping the door firmly shut. Clint stirred from the other end of room and sat up with a start, glancing around him. His eyes settled on Natasha, a confused expression worn openly on his face.

“Pepper and Tony’s idea of a joke” she explained curtly 

“It isn’t very funny”

“You’re telling me...”

 

They sat in silence for hours. Natasha by the door, Clint by the back wall; until he couldn’t stand it any longer.

“What happened to us Nat?”

She shrugged; “sometimes things just fall apart”

“Why didn’t we try and fix it?”

“We didn’t have chance, Clint, things aren’t always that easy...” She'd always regretted how easily SHIELD had pulled them apart.

“We could have tried; I thought we had something, Nat”

“We did...” she sighed sadly

He looked at her attentively, trying to get a read of her feelings. She avoided his gaze, staring intently at her feet as she hugged her knees to her chest. She looked more like a child, more vulnerable, in that moment than he'd ever seen her.

“Can I ask you, why are you so mad at me?”

“You really have to ask?”

“I just did”

“You need to trust me Clint, you’re always overstepping in the field. You don’t believe I can take care of myself; I was in the field long before you came along Clint Barton and I don’t need you to save me all the time!”

She was waiting for Clint to become defensive, for this to escalate into a shouting match like usual, but instead he just sighed

“I’m sorry, Nat; you’re right”

She looked at him, surprised

“I just hate that you have to put yourself in those situations, I hate seeing the way those guys look at you; like you’re an object to be used and discarded. It makes me sick”

Natasha felt buried feelings bubbling back up to the surface. She looked at Clint and knew she’d never trusted anyone more. He’d been the only stable thing in her life; the one constant, the one good thing she’d ever been allowed. He’d changed her life, in more ways than one; he’d fixed her and built her back up, given her a second chance and taught her how to trust... 

Clint was still slumped in the corner, eyes fixed on his hands. So when he felt Natasha’s lips on his he was completely taken aback. She pulled away as he tensed with shock, unsure of what it meant, but was relieved when she felt him pull her closer.  
His hands were on her back, keeping her pinned to him. Her hands were in his hair, keeping his lips pressed to hers. They kissed with urgency, as if trying to make up for the missed years. Neither of them had spoken any more truth than those few words uttered in a collapsing building in Marrakesh...

“I love you” they both said breathlessly, the moment their lips parted. 

They took the time to relearn each other bodies; they’d both gained new scars since they’d last been together. Natasha had a stab wound across her abdomen and a bullet wound in the thigh, Clint had a long scar down his back from an operation and three small puncture wounds in his shoulder.  
They made love; soft and gentle, caring and considerate. They fucked; hard and fast, desperate and urgent. For the first time in a long time they felt complete... Eventually, after round three, finally sated; they fell asleep, content, in each other’s arms.


	5. V

The next morning at breakfast Steve walked in, looking around at the others, searching for something. Or someone...

“Has anyone seen Clint or Natasha? Their phones have been going off all morning”

Pepper and Tony glanced at each other; they’d had such a good time the night before they’d completely forgotten all about their master plan to settle the argument between the resident assassins.

“Well it either worked, or they killed each other” Tony whispered as he and Pepper hurried down the hallway

They quickly unlocked the door to find the two assassins stood waiting for them. Tony jumped to hide behind Pepper, she smiled at the two of them nervously as she elbowed Tony in the stomach.

“Did it work?” she asked hopefully

“It worked” Clint said happily

"Thank you" Natasha added, as the two assassins walked down the hallway hand in hand, laughing and joking, but most importantly; happy.

Little did they know that in a few short weeks they’d receive some news which would change their lives forever...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> C'est fini :)


End file.
